Season recap: Abner Logan

Before Abner Logan was a four-star senior linebacker prospect at the Dexter School in Brookline, Mass., the Maryland-bound athlete was an 11th-grade varsity player with a fumbling problem.

Logan, who spent the first two years of his high school career at a New Hampshire boarding school, joined Casey Day’s Dexter program and quickly became the team’s top offensive threat. But while there were plenty of positives when Logan was in the backfield, there was also plenty of room for improvement.

“To his credit, we only played eight games up here [and] in that time, he had 400 yards receiving, 700 yards rushing, and one thing about him never playing running back is he put the ball on the ground seven or eight times last year,” Day said. “That’s something that he had never been coached on. To his credit, you could tell he didn’t really know what he was doing back there, how he would take a handoff and everything else.”

In the offseason, Logan hit the weight room and starred in several camps and combines, which led to double-digit scholarship offers and his four-star ranking as a linebacker. Running back would not be in Logan’s college future, but that didn’t stop him from doing everything in his power to fix his ball-dropping problem.

“In our eight games this year, he had over 1,100 yards rushing … he had one fumble and 18 touchdowns,” Day said. “The year before he was at seven or eight. He had one fumble, and … his one controversial fumble all season long was when he dove for the pylon and broke the plane but they said he fumbled and called a touchback. He went from seven or eight fumbles his junior year to one controversial fumble. That just tells you how he attacks his weaknesses.”

With Logan doing damage offensively and starring at strong-side outside linebacker, Dexter finished 4-4 this fall. Logan recorded 43 tackles, 10 sacks, nine tackles for loss and two interceptions, including one returned for a touchdown. Day can’t wait to see what Logan is capable of when he focuses on just one side of the ball.

“They’re saying he could play [right away] depending on how quickly he picks everything up mentally,” Day said. “He could have a chance at getting on the field next year. It comes down, obviously, to what the other kids are bringing to the table. I think athletically and physically, he could be on the field next year. It’s just going to be a matter of playing at the Division I speed mentally more than physically.”

Day said Logan, the No. 3 player in Massachusetts according to Rivals.com, plans to study business at Maryland. The Dexter coach expects his former star to develop into one of the Terps’ top leaders before his college career is done.

“I would say that No. 1, they’re going to get a kid who’s going to be able to play and have an unbelievable work ethic, a kid who’s going to make them look good both on the field and off the field,” Day said. “He has personality and has those traits that I think Coach [Randy] Edsall is looking for and he’s got the physical attributes and football talent that fans are looking for. I’m excited to see the kid and excited to come down to the area.”